Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 08/30 – iPhones With Satellite Internet?

Episode Date: August 30, 2021

It’s a day of wild rumors. Is Apple getting into the satellite networking game? Is the Apple Watch about to get its first meaningful design change? The rumors about a Chinese gaming crackdown just got real. Is South Korea about to meaningfully crack open the App Store? Why Apple and Google are fighting to keep the App Stores as they are. And the wild weekend in NFT-land. Sponsors: Ultimate Ears UE.com/fits promocode RIDE for 15% off TinyCapital.com Links: Kuo: iPhone 13 to Feature LEO Satellite Communications to Make Calls and Texts Without Cellular Coverage (MacRumors) Tim Cook’s Run as Apple CEO Could End as Early as 2025. Who Will Replace Him? (Bloomberg) China Slashes Kids’ Gaming Time to Just Three Hours a Week (Bloomberg) Apple, Google Mobile Dominance Faces Tough Test in South Korea (Bloomberg) Google allegedly offered Netflix a break on the usual Play Store commission (The Verge) TikTok owner ByteDance takes first step into virtual reality with latest acquisition (CNBC) CryptoPunks blasts past $1 billion in lifetime sales as NFT speculation surges (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Monday, August 30th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, it's a day of wild rumors. Is Apple getting into the satellite networking game? Is the Apple Watch about to get its first meaningful design change? The rumors about a Chinese gaming crackdown for kids just got very real is South Korea about to meaningfully crack open the app store,

why Apple and Google are fighting to keep the app stores as they are and the wild weekend in NFTs. you miss today in the world of tech. Is Apple ready to play in the satellite internet game? Our favorite Apple analyst, Ming Chi Kuo, says that iPhone 13 hardware could support LEO satellite communications. Apple may work with Global Star to enable connectivity when not in 4G or 5G range. So this is not the, hey, Apple, build your own cell network and replace the carrier's move that, Apple maximalists have wanted Apple to do for years, but maybe it could turn into that someday, quoting Mac Rumors. The iPhone 13 will feature low-earth-E-O satellite communication connectivity to allow users to make calls and send messages in areas without 4G or 5G coverage, according to

the reliable analyst Ming Chi Quo. In a note to investors seen by Mac Rumors, Quo explained that the iPhone 13 lineup will feature hardware that is able to connect to LEO satellites. If enabled with the relevant software features, this could allow iPhone 13 users to make calls and send messages without the need for a 4G or 5G cellular connection. The iPhone 13 reportedly features a customized Qualcomm X60 baseband chip that supports satellite communications. Other smartphone brands are apparently currently waiting until 2022 to adopt the X65 baseband chip necessary to implement satellite communication functions. SpaceX's Starlink is a purveyor of LEO internet connectivity.

that some readers may already be familiar with, but the LEO satellite communication service provider that is, quote, most likely to cooperate with Apple in terms of technology and service coverage, end quote, is said to be Global Star. Qualcomm has reportedly been working with Global Star to support the N53 band in future X65 baseband chips. Quo explained that, quote, the simplest scenario for providing LEO connectivity to users is if individual network operators work with Global Star. This means that customers of a partner network operator could use Global Star Satellite communication service on the iPhone 13 directly through their network operator with no additional contracts or payments required. Quo added that LEO satellite communications is a

technology comparable to MMWave 5G, millimeter wave 5G, in terms of its impact on the network industry and that Apple may leverage both technologies. Quo says that Apple is optimistic about the trend of satellite communications and set up a specific team for research and development of technologies related to it some time ago. Bloomberg's Mark German reported on the existence of this team in 2019, explaining that Apple was looking into new ways to beam data like internet connectivity directly to iPhones and other devices. Apple's CEO Tim Cook reportedly made the project a company priority with the main aim to beam data directly to a user's iPhone without reliance on wireless carriers and network coverage, end quote.

Speaking of Mark German, less potentially game-changing, but notable nonetheless. German has a piece out mimicking what a lot of other Apple rumor mongers have been saying lately, i.e. the Apple Watch might be about to get its first meaningful design change since its launch. German's sources are saying that the Apple Watch Series 7 will get a new flat-edged design, perhaps to mimic the flatter edges of recent iPhones and iPads with 41mm and 45 millimeter displays. So larger displays and multiple new watch faces to take advantage of these larger sizes. While last year's upgrade centered on the blood oxygen sensor this year's is all about a new design with a flatter display and edges, a faster processor, and slightly larger screens.

I don't expect any major health updates until at least next year when we may see a body temperature sensor. answer. This year's watches will come in 41mm and 45 millimeter sizes up from 40 and 44 millimeters. I'm told that Apple will bundle multiple new watch faces to take advantage of the bigger screen, including an updated infographic modular face. This will be the second time in the Apple Watch's history that the company has increased the display size following the Apple Watch Series 4 in 2017, end quote. This is not a rumor, because apparently it's now a fact. State media says that China is restricting the online gaming time of minors in that country to three hours most weeks of the year from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends and public holidays. And Penny thinks I'm a monstrous

tyrant when I take away her iPad for just 10 seconds, quoting Bloomberg. Gaming platforms from Tencent to NetE's can henceforth only offer online gaming to minors from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday's weekends and public holidays, state news agency, Genoa, reported, citing a notice by the National Press and Publication Administration. The new rules which limit teen playing time to three hours most weeks of the year is a major step up from a previous restriction set in 2019 to one and a half hours per day, most days. The escalating restrictions are likely to spook investors that had cautiously returned to Chinese stocks in recent days, exploring bargains after a raft of regulatory probes in areas from online commerce to data security and ride hailing ignited a trillion dollar

sell-off in past weeks. Later in the day, Beijing signaled its efforts to rein in large tech companies will continue. A top-level committee led by President Xi Jinping said that efforts made to prevent, quote, the disorderly expansion of some platform companies, and quote, had been a success, while also vowing, quote, more transparency and predictability in setting policies. Tencent and other companies have said miners account for only a fraction of their business, especially after recent restrictions. The country's largest games company has said that the revenue from miners yields less than 3% of its gross gaming receipts in China. Other key points in the new rules include all online games should be linked to a state anti-addiction system and companies can't provide

services to users without real-name registrations. Regulators will ratchet up checks over how gaming firms carry out restrictions on things like playing time and in-game purchases, and regulators will work with parents, schools, and other members of the Society to Combat Youth Gaming Addiction, end quote. Remember how I told you about how Great Britain was a big enough market that when the country passed new legislation to protect children online, pretty much every major tech platform had to change what they were doing in lockstep with protecting kids. Well, grok this news through that lens.

South Korea is expected to be the first country to pass a law to prevent app stores from mandating first party in-app payment systems. The vote on this could come as soon as today, quoting Bloomberg. The Telecommunications Business Act would mandate giving users a free choice of app payment providers. The bill, which is almost certain to pass an assembly vote given the ruling party's supermajority, opens the door for companies like Fortnite Maker Epic Games to transact directly with users and bypass the platform owner's charges. Epic has taken the iOS and Android owners to court in various jurisdictions, arguing their fees are unfair. The bill, originally slated for a vote Monday, was delayed by other legislation and will now go before lawmakers at a future plenary session to be determined.

Quote, this could presage similar actions elsewhere, said Amdia analyst Guillermo Escoffet, who specializes in digital consumer platforms. Regulators, lawmakers, and litigators in North America and Europe are also scrutinizing app store billing rules, and the overriding political mood has become hostile to the enormous amount of power concentrated in the hands of the tech giants, end quote. Korean lawmakers are making their move ahead of plans by Google to introduce its 30% commission fee in October, reversing a year-long exemption for the country. Its announcement last year, it would make its payment system mandatory for non-gaming apps,

is widely seen as the trigger for the new legislation, dubbed locally the anti-Google law, end quote. And then, given that news, this is interesting data. A filing in the U.S. State Attorney's General lawsuit against Google reveals that the Google Play Store hit revenues of $11.2 billion in 2019, with $8.5 billion in gross profit, thus an operating margin of over 62%. This is interesting because both Apple and Google have tried hard to obfuscate the cash cow that these app stores may or may not be for them. If this is true, I think we can see why both Google and Apple are fighting so hard to maintain the status quo, because the status quo is a mountain of money. Quoting the verge.

As far as competition, the lawyers cite Google estimates that say even a major player like Samsung could only manage $100 million in revenue for 2019, while the Play Store raked in around $4 billion just from Samsung phones. Google's response to the state attorneys general in June, said the Play Store, quote, provides more openness and choice than others, and that on Android, quote, you can choose to download the app from a rival app store directly from a developer's website. However, this filing pokes holes in that argument as well, pointing out that Google's OEM agreements with phone manufacturers

interfere with making other app stores as easy to access as the Play Store, which they must include on a device's home screen to preload Google apps like Gmail and Google Maps, end quote. And one more interesting nugget from earlier in the article, quoting again, perhaps the most telling is a mention that popular subscription services like Spotify, Netflix, and Tinder have tried to find ways around Google Play billing and that 30% cut. This is no secret, as the direct collection of credit card info by Netflix and Spotify reportedly resulted in Google posting a clarification, explaining that Play Store apps must use Google's billing system and giving them a year to change. In this filing, the lawyers accused Google of offering

Netflix a, quote, significantly reduced revenue share, end quote, with the apparent intention of squashing Netflix's desire to use an alternative payment system. While we haven't seen the details or timing of this supposed pitch, it's a direct reflection of things we learned in the Epic versus Apple trial where Apple emails show, it offered a series of sweeteners to keep Netflix on its in-app purchase system, end quote. I don't know really yet what to make of this news, but given the numbers I'm about to read to you, I thought it was worth making note of this and maybe filing this away for later in case it proves to be impactful. Bight Dance has acquired VR headset maker Pico.

I think this is notable because, according to IDC, Pico was the third largest VR headset maker globally in Q1, 2021. with shipments up 44.7% year-over-year, quoting CNBC. Beijing headquartered BightDance did not disclose the size of the deal, but said in a statement that PICO's, quote, comprehensive suite of software and hardware technologies, as well as the talent and deep expertise of the team, will support both our entry to the VR space and long-term investment in this emerging field, end quote.

BiteDance's acquisition of Pico could pit it against Facebook's Oculus VR division, And last year, Apple bought Next VR, a virtual reality company sparking speculation, it could be working on its own VR headsets. We are optimistic about the future of VR and its alignment with our mission, a bite dance spokesperson said, end quote. Finally today, if you were on social media at all this weekend and you didn't hear about NFT rocks or NFT tulips or NFT anything, frankly, you're doing it wrong because everybody has had full-on NFT fever this weekend once again. Let me reel off some of the things I noticed over the weekend. I could name record sales of rocks, record prices for tulips.

Remember, these are real NFT things that are suddenly very popular, but very prominent are the Bored Ape Yacht Club prices. Ape number 9361, apparently sold for 55, ETH two months ago, and resold for 500 Eth or $1.6 million on Thursday. Popular NFT marketplace OpenC is about to close the month of August with $3 billion worth of volume traded in 31 days with about 200,000 active wallets. And Cryptopunks crossed $1 billion in transaction volume, with the cheapest artwork available for sale on that platform costing $450,000. Quoting, Mattney's newsletter from TechCrunch. Back in April, I wrote about a platform called Cryptopunks

that at that point had banked more than $200 million in lifetime sales since 2017. The little pop art pixel portraits have taken on a life of their own since then. It was pretty much unthinkable back then, but in the last 24 hours alone, the platform did $141 million in sales a new record. By the time you read this, the NFT platform will have likely passed a mind-boggling $1.1 billion action volume, according to CryptoTracker, CryptoSlam. With 10,000 of these digital characters, to buy a single one will cost you at least $450,000 worth of the Ethereum cryptocurrency. When I sent out this newsletter yesterday, that number was only $300,000. It's not just cryptocurrencies either. The entire NFT world has exploded in the past week, with several

billion dollars flowing into projects with drawings of monkeys, penguins, dinosaurs, and generative art this month alone. Part of it has been a resurgence of cryptocurrency of cryptocurrency prices toward all-time highs and a desire among the crypto-rich to diversify their stratospheric assets without converting their wealth into fiat currencies. Dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into an NFT project with fewer stakeholders than the currencies that underlie them can make a lot of sense to those whose wealth is already over-indexed in crypto. But a lot of this money is likely FOMO dollars from investors who are dumping real cash into NFTs, bolstered by moves like visas purchase this week of their own crypto punk.

I think it's pretty fair to say that this growth is unsustainable, but how much further along this market growth gets before the pace of investment slows or collapses is completely unknown. There are no signs of slowing down for now, something that can be awfully exciting and dangerous, for investors looking for something wild to drop their money into and wild this market truly is, end quote. Hmm, maybe I need to put some eth into my metamask wallet so that I can afford to sell more of those first podcast episode NFTs that I minted. I wanted to bring my boy Max on here to give you his review of the new PlayStation and the Miles Morales-Morales Spider-Man game that he's been playing on it this weekend, but he wasn't having it, just wasn't in the mood. Maybe I can talk him into it

tomorrow. But I swear to God, I can measure my kids' development in games. Like, at the start of the pandemic, when Penny and I played Breath of the Wild, I had to read. to her all of the cutscenes because she couldn't read yet. By the end of last year, she was reading it all by herself. 100% Zelda taught Penny to read. And up until now, when I do a game with Max, I usually have to do all of the missions and boss fights myself, and he just likes to run around the city,

climbing walls and swinging on his webs. But when I logged into Spider-Man last night, the game was 15% completed, and I was like, has somebody been doing the missions? turns out Max was doing the missions. He is now a good enough gamer to do the missions on his own, or as he puts it, doing crime fighting. Now, it's on the easiest setting, albeit,

and I'm pretty sure he just blitzes all the buttons when he fights. But still, Max is good enough to fight supervillains on his own now. My babies are growing up. Talk to you tomorrow.